s, two
or three little girls, thrust into the centre of the group and said:

"I want do blay."

The debating voices hushed; the other children stared at him with
startled eyes, then drew aside leaving him face to face with Pollyooly.

"We don't want him to play with _us_!" cried Kathleen, who occupied the
position of chief friend to Pollyooly.

"No, we don't!" cried the two other little girls.

The prince paid no heed to them; he looked at Pollyooly and said:

"I want do blay."

Pollyooly considered him thoughtfully, weighing the question of his
admission to their circle with the care it demanded. He was not very
pleasant to look at since he was so podgy, snub-nosed, pasty-faced, and
small-eyed; but Pollyooly, mindful of their late encounter, and
inspired by the magnanimity of the victor, did not at once reject the
appeal.

"Will you promise to behave properly, if we let you play with us?" she
said coldly.

The Baron von Habelschwert, standing over the group and nervously
twirling his fierce moustache, shuddered and groaned. It was bad
enough that his young, but pig-headed Hohenzollern should play at all
with children who were neither high, nor well-born; but that he should
only be admitted to play with them on terms passed the limit of human
decency. He had read often in the sterner, but agrarian, papers of his
Fatherland, that, owing to the increase of the Socialist vote, the
world was coming to an end. He felt its once so solid mass trembling
beneath his feet.

But the hope of the house of Lippe-Schweidnitz, insensible to the
tremor, said eagerly:

"Yes."

"All right: then we'll try letting you play with us and see," said
Pollyooly.

There came a faint murmur of protest from her friends, or rather from
her followers; and she added with comforting assurance:

"Oh, it's all right; you needn't worry about him; I'll see that he
behaves, myself."

With that assurance they were content--they had to be; the prince was
admitted to the circle; and Pollyooly picked him on her side.

It had the first innings; and the baron expected the prince to be put
in first. He was annoyed to observe that, as a mere matter of tactics,
since she was by far the fastest of her side, that Pollyooly took that
position herself. He was further annoyed when she put in her friend
Kathleen next, an act of sheer favouritism unjustified by Kathleen's
capacity; and after Kathleen she put in a little boy, and then another
lit